ok, so I have a 1/4 acre pond...(soon to be renovated to 1/2 acre or more) This spring 2015 I stocked 1lb of bluegill, 1lb of threadfin shad... I waited all summer before I was going to stock some LMB... I had successful bluegill spawns over the summer...but we also had a few floods..and some invasive species got into the pond.. GSF and Bullhead and even a few small LMB.. The problem was I had 2 clouds of baby bullheads probably 100-200 each swimming around my pond for the past 4 weeks.. and no predators to do anything....so on the recommendation of someone on my post, they told me to stock a few bass....but before I did stock some bass, I stocked another 1lb of threadfin and 1lb of bluegill..
Stocking Well maybe I went a little overboard.. I have stocked 6 bass...not just any bass two are 2lbers three are 4lbers one is a 5lber... I went to a local fishing hole and caught a few of these guys and moved them in... Well the good news is I don't have a bullhead problem anymore..within 1 week I did not see the balls of catfish anymore..bad news is..now I gotta feed these girls. (I want these girls to be the Rosie O'donnell sisters..)
So I went to a local community pond that had a stunted bluegill population and caught 110 multiple size fish and moved them. So I did the math and even with 110... that is still only 18 bluegill per bass..(Not including frogs, threadfin and previous bluegill/yoy, gsf, bullhead) etc..
I know bass are opportunistic feeders and will eat even if they are not "hungry" i.e like this guy feeding his bass: "bass eats 36 goldfish a day"
So I have a 2 part question: So how many full grown bluegill will a large bass eat a day? and how long will that sustain them? Lets say she eats 2 bluegill 1/4lb each...so she has 1/2 in her belly...how long will that sustain her? 1 day, 2 days? a week?
ok, so I have a 1/4 acre pond...(soon to be renovated to 1/2 acre or more) This spring 2015 I stocked 1lb of bluegill, 1lb of threadfin shad... I waited all summer before I was going to stock some LMB... I had successful bluegill spawns over the summer...but we also had a few floods..and some invasive species got into the pond.. GSF and Bullhead and even a few small LMB.. The problem was I had 2 clouds of baby bullheads probably 100-200 each swimming around my pond for the past 4 weeks.. and no predators to do anything....so on the recommendation of someone on my post, they told me to stock a few bass....but before I did stock some bass, I stocked another 1lb of threadfin and 1lb of bluegill..
Stocking Well maybe I went a little overboard.. I have stocked 6 bass...not just any bass two are 2lbers three are 4lbers one is a 5lber... I went to a local fishing hole and caught a few of these guys and moved them in... Well the good news is I don't have a bullhead problem anymore..within 1 week I did not see the balls of catfish anymore..bad news is..now I gotta feed these girls. (I want these girls to be the Rosie O'donnell sisters..)
So I went to a local community pond that had a stunted bluegill population and caught 110 multiple size fish and moved them. So I did the math and even with 110... that is still only 18 bluegill per bass..(Not including frogs, threadfin and previous bluegill/yoy, gsf, bullhead) etc..
I know bass are opportunistic feeders and will eat even if they are not "hungry" i.e like this guy feeding his bass: "bass eats 36 goldfish a day"
So I have a 2 part question: So how many full grown bluegill will a large bass eat a day? and how long will that sustain them? Lets say she eats 2 bluegill 1/4lb each...so she has 1/2 in her belly...how long will that sustain her? 1 day, 2 days? a week?
Thanks
I'm far from an expert, but until one shows up I'll try to help.
The honest answer is -- It depends. In general, predatory fish like LMB have to eat 10 lb of fish to gain 1 lb themselves. So 1/2 lb in her belly will eventually translate, under normal conditions, to a gain of .05 lbs, or perhaps 6/10 of an ounce in weight.
But "normal conditions" is the kicker. If the water is cool or cold, LMB metabolism slows and perhaps fewer calories are used to move around. Result: LMB remains full longer, and/or gains more weight from same food. Hot water conditions would be the reverse.
And how hard did the LMB have to work to catch the BG in the first place? LMB that have to swim a lot burn off more calories than those that don't. That's one of the reasons why bass get bigger when they have a small hunting area around some type of cover or structure rather than cruising large areas to find food.
I don't have exact numbers, obviously. Given the cool conditions we have now, I suspect the bass will be fine for a while with 1/2 lb of BG in their bellies. Specifics beyond that I leave to the pros.
The biggest consideration is that the bass are going to spawn. I would try to remove those that you have. You probably won't be able to catch all of them. A 1/4 or 1/2 acre water hole will not support bass spawning in our area. If you can eliminate them by using live bait, I would go back with either some hybrid stripers or all female bass.
2 possible things to do is fish it heavily and keep dumping stunted bluegills in for them.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.
Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.
Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
I did something similar in my 1 acre pond. I have been battling bullheads since all of the Texas rain filled my pond up this past spring. A few months ago, I counted 5 individual balls of baby bullheads at one time in various spots around the pond. The next week I went and picked up 25 adult LMB based on a thread I posted here. I haven't seen a single bullhead swarm since!
It was a little earlier in my stocking plan then I wanted to put the LMB in, but it was that or have my pond taken over by bullheads.
Now I'm a little worried that this wild bunch is just beating my fledgling forage base to a pulp! Oh well, they're fun to catch!
Yeah I worried that the bullheads would get too big for fingerling bass to eat... Since the pond is so small I opted for some larger fish, if you are going to catch something might as well be something big! The problem is these fish are a lot smarter than young dumb bass..I've only tried fishing for them twice for about 30-45 minutes each time...I can easily fish the whole pond and not get a bite...ha but I know if and when I do, it will be worth it. My goal is to make sure they are sustained through the winter until the spring spawn of fish happen.. hopefully they don't decimate the population of bluegill until then.
Shotguns work amazingly well on balls of bullheads.
haha That sounds way more fun! I actually had to recently dispose of a snapping turtle headed to our pond..I only had my 270 with me...I didn't realize how much power that thing has..I was face timing with my sister during the encounter and somehow she screen shotted the incident...the turtle went flying about 3 feet in the air...
Trophy bass So you think you want to grow trophy bass? If so, get ready to feed them, feed them well - and this may be more of a challenge than you realize. Recent research suggests that largemouth bass, under optimal conditions, are capable of consuming as much as 5 percent of their body weight daily. That means a 5-pound bass, feeding at maximum efficiency, will consume a quarter pound per day ... nearly 2 pounds per week... over 50 pounds during a normal growing season (March-October). That's 10 times its body weight, just during the growing season! Let's assume that the typical pond has roughly 125 pounds per acre of largemouth bass, ranging in size from juveniles to mature adults. Given this model, these individuals would consume as much as six-plus pounds of forage per day... over 40 pounds in a week ... and more than 1,300 pounds in a growing season. This is for one acre. http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/trophy_bass_prey.html
So doing some math here... I have 110 stocked bluegill at about 3-6oz each.. so average 4 bluegill =1lbs. 110= 27.5lbs So based on an average growing season I can expect a 5lb bass to eat 8 bluegill a week at 4oz each if they were just to eat up to 5% their body weight a day.. So 110 bluegill is roughly 13.75 weeks of food for one 5lb bass..
Cool info. Did you consider your bass is growing? Theoretically, after eating nearly 28lbs of BG in about 14 weeks, your 5 lb bass is now a 7.8lb bass!
Last edited by Bill D.; 11/13/1509:05 PM. Reason: Clarification
The article noted in the link was authored by a knowledgeable fisheries biologist - Norm Latona. Norm has written several articles for PBoss magazine. The food consumption (5%) noted in the article is at the optimum rate and as a bass matures to large size the consumption is often not at the 5% total body weight/day and is closer to 3% where good growth still occurs. Consumed weight of 3% is still a lot of food. As the water cools during winter the food consumption decreases as the water gets cooler.
3zek3l - To keep your bass healthy during winter make an effort to add more of those stunted BG at the rate of about 3-5 BG(3"-5") per bass per week during TX winter(48F-55F). 6 bass x 3BG X 20 weeks = 360-480BG should keep your 6 bass in good body condition till May.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/09/1702:02 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
I have been trying to wrap my head around these numbers and it is a real eye opener, at least to me. Say you put only one 5 pound bass in a 1/4 acre pond. That pond needs to produce like a thousand 3 to 5 inch BG a year just for that one fish! Then you figure that big bass will also have the gap to be taking out your adult BGs along the way; making it even harder to keep up the BG population. Maybe that's one of the big reasons folks say you can't produce big bass in a small BOW. Seems there is no way a small pond can produce enough forage to feed big bass so constant supplemental stocking of large forage would be required.
The larger bass often eat larger food items which extrapolates to fewer items eaten each year if the food is adequate. In reality I think the amount of food eaten to gain weight is based more on pounds consumed rather than numbers. Often if they are eating higher numbers the amount of weight gain will not be as large when expending more energy capturing more items.
Many bass are doing well to gain a pound per year which equates to eating 8-10 lbs of food. Put in perspective for 4" BG there are 144-181 in 8 to 10 lbs. For 5" BG there 72 to 90 in 8 to 10 lbs.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
Cool info. Did you consider your bass is growing? Theoretically, after eating nearly 28lbs of BG in about 14 weeks, your 5 lb bass is now a 7.8lb bass!
Hey Bill, I wonder if that takes the age of the bass into consideration? I am assuming these bass to be 5-7 years old..based on the pond age that I caught them from.(possibly older) Do older bass grow as fast as a younger bass? My assumption would be no. So even if I stocked a 5lber and made the food available I wouldn't think they would be able to grow that fast if they ate everything in the pond?
I need to find out how old the bass are that I stocked, I think I can take a scale sample and count rings correct?
That would at least let me track one of them during this next growing season (2016) to determine her age and how much she grew or didn't grow.
Does anyone know at what age a bass stops growing? or do they grow their whole life as long as they eat well?
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
There is a TPWD study following LMB for 16 years. Growth slows with age. First few years are fast then slowing.
You know I just saw this documentary on Dotty and realized this girl put on a 1lb+ per year in her old age! Wow That is impressive....So for some reason this bass kept growing right up until she died...In 2003, she weighed in at 21.11 and in 2006 25lb 1oz,
"Dickerson was the first to realize the dream in 2003, and he thought the record was officially broken when he picked her off a spawning bed. He said the three friends immediately weighed Dottie at around 23 pounds, but it took the Game and Fish three hours to get to the lake to verify it as a record. By that time, they said, it was stressed and had lost a lot of its weight.
She officially weighed 21 pounds, 11 ounces, which still holds as the fourth largest largemouth bass ever recorded. That's when they noticed the spot on the gill and declared the race for "Dottie" and the record officially on.
They didn't pull her in again until 2006 when they again spotted her on a spawning bed and Weakley went to work. He eventually was able to set the hook, but when he got her to the boat, they noticed she had been foul hooked (not hooked in the mouth). Against his friends' wishes, Weakley decided not to try and make the record official with the Game and Fish.
Before releasing her, they weighed Dottie at 25 pounds, 1 ounce, shattering the record, took some photos. Weakley said he wasn't prepared for the scrutiny that followed."
Dottie was also in a BOW where they stocked large amounts of rainbow trout every few weeks all late fall/winter/early spring. Trout have more calories per pound than BG.
Now that you have the large bass in your pond, you have to worry about them pulling off a successful spawn. Then you have all the babies to deal with ..........
Here is some direct data from one of the Calif. lakes in question. In the same lake under the same conditions Fla. and Northerns. There are also some interesting text points I will try to scan tomorrow. Here is a chart. The chart is of age , length and weight.
A couple of their points - Flas live longer that is why no data on 9+ yr. Nort. - Waters rarely drops to 50 and thus a year long growth season - while shad are a forage RT were necessary to get to very large size - RT stocked in coldwater mths at 9-11 inches no fear and fat are easy pickings for large LMB - big LMB do not go deep after shad ( + 30 ft.) in winter but stay up ( less than 25 ft.) and eat RT and craws.
I have another study from Tenn. on topic that ties together the fattening up process Bruce ask about. From the 2 it appears on first examination that LMB really fatten up in fall 55-65 temps because they keep eating but metab. (food use) slows thus fats added . It also shows that LMB keep eating below 50 but at much reduced rate. More to come. \:\)
Wow... I had not really thought this through. Reading the older post in this thread was eye opening. 4" BG there are 144-181 in 8 to 10 lbs. 5" BG there 72 to 90 in 8 to 10 lbs.
To make is easy, let's just say 100 BG required per yr for one Bass. I put 25 HSB (2-4") in the 1 Acre pond in Nov 2015 with 25 LMB (2-4"). That's at least 5000 BG required per year not taking into account LMB spawning.
I had 750 BG and 100 RES with a bunch of Fatheads to start with. By mid summer 2016 you couldn't find a fathead. Two weeks ago I hooked my first HSB and it broke my line close to the bank (light tackle but what fun). I'm hoping it was at least 2 lbs.
I'm now intrigued by the thought of adding Tilapia to maybe allow some growth of the BG.
I agree with Chris that out of its mouth was bottom gravel. He should find some larger feeder fish for the bass. Any idea how long the bass is? It looks to be in pretty good body condition.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
Guess I won't be putting any bass in my 1/4 acre pond. They would wipe out the BG and RES, then reproduce and stunt. I will let my CC be top predators.
I'd be willing to bet that most people don't realize just how many fish a LMB will eat per year. That's why BG have such high reproductive cycles. That's also why we aren't walking across our ponds on the backs of the BG. 99%+ of the ones hatched get eaten.